


A Lavender Rose

by whothebuckisfucky



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Awkward Flirting, First Dates, First Meetings, Flirting, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-06-04
Packaged: 2020-03-07 12:42:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18873433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whothebuckisfucky/pseuds/whothebuckisfucky
Summary: Buck gives a nod, messing with his phone until the sound of someone coming in gets him to stop and put the phone down for now. Eyes are lifting to the movement of someone approaching before instantly being taken off guard. Holy shit⎼Sam turns at the same sound, eyes slightly widening at seeing the large figure heading up to the front counter.





	1. Chapter 1

“Hey, looks like we have another weird name on one.” Sam’s calling back to Bucky, having paused in looking through the online orders when one of the names caught his attention.

A soft snort comes from hearing the words, halting in the process of dethorning the rose in his hand to look up that way. “Oh yeah? What’s this one?” Buck asks, listening while he continued what he was doing.

“Steve Rogers.” He calls back as he takes a more in-depth look over the order after having gotten over how funny the name was.

A laugh comes from Bucky, unable to help his amusement. “I wonder if it’s just some unfortunate person with the same name this time. Or if it’s another one gonna end up running in here in full costume to pick it up.”  
  
“Please, don’t remind me about that.” Sam’s commenting with a look over his shoulder towards the back room. “How're the roses coming along?”  
  
“Oh, it’s far too late for that.” Bucky teases with a giggle bubbling from lips. The motions of picking up a flower, using the tool to strip the thorns, and set it aside to get the next were familiar enough to do without paying too much attention. The question gets another pause, looking to the row of unfinished ones before eyes move to the fridge with the few bundles still left. “Uh⎼ Shit, with that shipment this morning, mhh⎼  still looking at six dozen more for the day?”

Sam listens for the answer while he jots down a few things to be able to get started on some of the arrangements. "That's not too bad. Maybe you won't have to work through lunch again." He's teasing.

A scrunch of nose comes as a response to that, "Don't you have work to be doing instead of hassling me?"

"Pretty sure that's part of the job description, Barnes."

"Would you like these thorns in your shoes, Wilson?"

Sam's unable to help but laugh at the threat as he moves into the back room, heading to get the bundles he needed to work with. A glance is given to the other man to see how many he had managed to get through. He pauses in what he was doing after deciding to help by putting away the ones already done.

Buck appreciated the help, but a tease is still too tempting to keep to himself, "Hey, aren't you supposed to be making that order for Captain America?"

A huffed laugh comes out at the comment as eyes rolled, "Just trying to help your slow ass." He counters back with a smirk lifting the corner of mouth. "Now we're going to have to make him wait."

"Shit, my bad." He jokes, pausing again to roll his right wrist. Just because the motion was easy, didn’t mean that it wasn’t damn tiring to do over and over again. "Please tell me they didn't request the colors be red, white, and blue." Buck's adding on, giving a soft laugh at just the thought of it. Now that he was actually thinking about it, he was really hoping that the order was exactly that.

"I wish, but no. They had the smaller spring one." Sam answers, a quiet laugh rumbling in throat. He had to admit he was pretty disappointed that it wasn’t.

Bucky's scrunching nose as he moves to take a small break in the tedious thorn removal process to help Sam transfer those finished ones. "Well, that's a letdown." He mutters with a huffed laugh, "But now I'm just betting on some poor guy with the same name."

A hum of agreement follows the comment as the corner of his mouth flicks into an amused smile. “Think I’ll have to agree with you on both.” He comments, carefully getting the flowers into their water then stepping aside to let Bucky get to the fridge too. A slow breath is taken as he moves back past Bucky, the smell of the roses heavy in the air from moving such a large amount. Even with smelling it every day, he had to admit he never quite got tired of it.

“Agreeing with me twice? That’s unheard of, Sam.” Buck teases as he moves to gingerly get all the roses into water. He desperately wanted to get through the rest of them in the next half hour and was confident that he could manage that. “Hey is it your day or my day at register?” He’s asking with a glance over to the other man.  
  
“Yours.” He smiles, adding a wink on the tail end of the word.  
  
“Fuck.”  

A laugh comes as a response to the curse, maybe feeling a small amount of sympathy for the guy having to work on the roses _and_ deal with customers. “Hey if it makes you feel any better, all but two of the pre-ordered for today already paid,” Sam comments while walking to pull the rest of the roses out that Bucky still needed to process through.  
  
A small huffed laugh follows, but nodding, “Yeah, okay, that does help a little. Less time for the fake smile to have to come out.” He mutters, otherwise focused on wiping the thorns and leaves into the bin with metal hand. Honestly, it wasn’t the worst thing, but that still didn’t mean that he wanted to be forced to talk to people.

“Hey, maybe you’ll fake smile at Captain America.” Sam’s poking as he carefully sat down more flowers beside the table Buck was at. He stands back up with a loud crack from his back, making a small noise and rubbing at it.  
  
“Oh right, right. Is that before or after the person that needs something big and fancy last minute comes in?” Buck rebuttals. A thanks is given to Sam’s help of moving the flowers around, really appreciating it. The heavy temptation to tease about the painful sounding noise is pushed away, just because Sam was being nice, even if a laugh does manage to bubble out.  
  
“Pretty sure it’s at the same time. They’ll just shove him out of the way because they’re in a hurry.”  
  
“And it’s our fault that we can’t get something together fast enough, right?”  
  
“Oh yeah, you know it.”  
  
A giggle from Bucky slips out while shaking head at the goof, choosing to pause in his work for a moment. “You know, I think I would get tired of this job real quick without you here.” He says with a glance over, blue eyes meeting brown ones while a crinkle-eyed grin widens across features.  
  
The words paired with the expression causes a smirk back, “I know,” comes back from Sam. He slips out of the room a moment to grab the bigger of the vases he needed. “Also, out of curiosity, who is your favorite Avenger? ‘Cause I think I’m gonna have to go with Captain America.” He questions, not taking overly long in walking back in.  
  
Even if a huff is the initial response to the question, a soft hum rumbles in his throat as he thought it over. Fingers drum lightly against the table as he considered it, metal against metal pinging out noises. “I would say Thor, but⎼ I dunno, I think I’m gonna have to go with Iron Man. I geek out over all that tech shit too much.”

“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed that one.” Sam comments, working on getting the arrangements for the orders together. He did find it funny that this was the first time they had really discussed the Avengers after the few years they had been around. Maybe he thought it was a subject that Bucky would want to stay away from after the New York attack.

Buck twitches a smile at the comment, standing to go put more of the finished ones away now that he was close to being done _finally_. There’s a few moments of silence between them before Bucky speaks up again, “God, remember the aliens though?”

The question is taking him off guard, glad the surprised look had been hidden with his back being towards him. “I don’t think I could forget. Especially if you’re meaning the ones that got in here.” Sam answers, looking over his shoulder back at him.  
  
A nod acknowledges the answer as he moves between the storage fridge and the table. “Man, that was fucking insane. All I remember is just⎼ their faces and that god awful noise they made.” He murmurs, shaking head with a furrow of brows. It seemed so clear in his mind still, even if the moments after were too jumbled and fuzzy to actually recall.

“About as insane as anyone else that comes in here.” Sam pokes back, trying not to let him think into it too much right now. A smile is coming to lips when there’s a laugh at his comment, attention turning back to what he had been doing. Another moment passes before the hope that he didn’t dismiss him comes to mind. “If you ever wanna talk about it, you know I’m all ears. Maybe, not here, but.”

Buck looks to that with a raise of eyebrows, then a softer smile pulls at lips, “I know, Sam. Thank you.” He says in an equally soft voice.

Left hand sweeps the debris off of the table, eyes flicking to the shine of metal a moment at the topic before forcing the thought out of his mind. He moves to get the last two dozen over, knowing he would need to get the shop ready to open as soon as he got through these. Silence is taking back over as he worked through them, wanting to give Sam some peace to focus on getting the orders together.

A look is aimed over to Bucky at first from the silence, making sure he was still acting alright, and only moving attention back on what he was working on after he was satisfied that it seemed to be the case. He’s keeping his own silence as he worked, mind more focused on what he was doing than finding conversation anyways.  
  
Once the last of the roses are done, Bucky moves to put them away and do a quick clean up of his area. He’s stretching with a soft squeak as he moves over to look at what all Sam had gotten done. “Hey, those look really good!” He compliments with a smile, “I’m gonna go up front and open.”  
  
There’s a glance and smile returned at the compliment, “Thanks.” He says and nods to that, figuring it had to be nearing eight by then. “I left you a note on the order names and the two that still need to pay. I’ll make sure to mark the names on the vases too. And I left the notepad up there in case you need it.” Sam tells him before he has the chance to leave the room.  
  
“You’re a saint.” Buck smiles, “Hey, remind me later and I’ll pay for lunch, yeah?” He knew he owed it to him for the extra help today, plus it couldn’t hurt with how good to him Sam always was.  
  
“You got it.”  
  
Buck gives another smile, then heads out of the back to go straighten up everything and open the shop. He’s going back around the counter afterward and giving a look over the list, glad that most of them had paid already for the day. It would make his life a whole lot easier that way.  
  
The first hour brought with it one of the people who had ordered but was still too early for much more traffic than that. The next few hours cycled more in, able to mark off most of that list of names.  
  
Sam’s heading up to the front once it gets within the hour before their lunch break and moves to lean against the counter with a quiet sigh. “I know it’s usually not _insanely_ busy in here, but today seems like it’s just dragging by.” He comments.  
  
“I know. I’ve checked the sign I don’t know how many times to make sure I remembered to flip it.” Bucky snorts with a slight shake head, “Suppose it’s just one of those days, huh?” Eyes are trailing back to the sign again to check for probably the fifteenth time, then trailing to the window. It really didn’t look like many people were out. While he preferred this in comparison to an overly busy day, slow days made the hours seem to just crawl.  
  
A nod responds to that one coupled with a sigh, “Yep.” Then moving over closer to him to take a look at the list. “At least we’ve only got four of those left. Still haven’t seen Steve Rogers yet?” Sam asks⎼ well, more joking than asking really.  
  
“Nope, not yet. Probably gonna be the last person of the day just because we want to see who this person is.” Buck answers with a laugh. At least it was something to look forward to with the day being so slow. And, for sure, he was looking forward to finding out the answer to who this person would be.  
  
Sam backs off to give him room again, “Yeah really. Or a no-show.” He snorts as he leans back against the counter, mindful of anything around the spot. “Oh, and I was supposed to remind you about lunch.”  
  
Buck’s making a small hum at the reminder and nodding, “Oh right. You have any preference?” He asks, drumming fingers against the notepad as eyes move to Sam with a questioning couple of blinks.  
  
A hum of consideration comes before attention turns back to him, “We could do that one sandwich shop a few blocks over. If you put in the order I can run and pick it up.”  
  
“Yeah, that’d be good. You sure you don’t mind going?” Buck asks, already moving to get out his phone since⎼ there wasn’t exactly anyone here. He pulls up the website after a good minute of trying to remember the name of it, though ending up having to go to his phone’s notes to actually answer that. “I’ll just let you put in yours.”  
  
“Trust me, I don’t mind. Better than you wandering off and getting lost.” He jokes. Mostly anyway. “Alright, whatever works.”  
  
Buck gives a nod, messing with his phone until the sound of someone coming in gets him to stop and put the phone down for now. Eyes are lifting to the movement of someone approaching before instantly being taken off guard. _Holy shit_ ⎼  
  
Sam turns at the same sound, eyes slightly widening at seeing the large figure heading up to the front counter. He exchanges a quick look with Bucky before trailing closer to the door to the back to go get that order.  


The initial shock is having to be forced to wear off from Bucky as _Captain fucking America_ makes his way over to the counter. He was sure he was staring like a damn idiot for a minute far longer than he meant to, but somehow managing to force himself in the right state of mind to give him a smile, “How can I help you?”  
  
Steve gives the cashier a smile as he walks up, though a little taken aback at how gorgeous the man’s eyes were. “I had put in an order to pick up today. I, uh, hope I came to the right shop?” He tells him.  
  
Bucky nods, keeping the smile on lips even if he was still in starstruck mode from being face to face with an Avenger. “I’m guessing you were under Steve Rogers then?” He asks with an awkward huff of a laugh. It was better than the internal screeching that was going on inside his head at least.  
  
Steve dips head in a nod to that one, “Yep, sure am.” He confirms, still unable to take his eyes off the cashier. He couldn’t seem to help it with just how attractive the man was. Maybe it was those eyes that had drawn him in, but really, he had such a beautiful face framed between long hair, with help surely from the beard to let eyes wander down to lips. He tries not to linger on anywhere other than eyes too long, not wanting to make the guy uncomfortable.  
  
The way he was being looked at was going unnoticed, mind racing too much to put together anything more than his own behavior. Bucky nods before looking back at Sam, making sure that his hair was in the way of any facial features, then promptly mouthing a, ‘What the fuck!’ at Sam.  
  
Sam’s definitely noticing how the taller man was looking at Bucky and found himself both amused and a little shocked from it. But the shocked part may have been from having _the_ Steve Rogers right there. Eyes are finally parting from the man as Bucky turns, huffing an amused breath at that and nodding. What the fuck was right. He moves back to go grab the arrangement for Steve, hoping that Buck could handle not imploding while he was gone. But not confident on that one.  
  
Bucky turns back to Steve, looking up to meet those blue eyes with his own, and forcing another friendly smile to him. “Is there anything else I can help you with or will that be all?” He asks, eyes flicking down momentarily at the man’s chest. Damn. Those things could hold a shelf on top. Those thoughts are being forced away, needing to do his job and not think about Captain America being a foot away from him. Or his chest. Or how⎼ pretty he was.  
  
A small noise of consideration is given, pulling attention away from the brunette for a moment to give a look around. “I don’t suppose you have any recommendations for someone in the hospital, do you?” He asks.  
  
Buck thinks about it a moment, humming softly, “I mean, of course, a card is always nice, but I would think a stuffed animal could be that extra thing, yanno? I would think something soft would be nice while stuck in a hospital bed.” He answers before giving another smile to him and quickly adding, “But that’s just my opinion.”  
  
“I was asking for it.” Steve says with a soft laugh, eyes flicking back to him a moment. He moves off to the side to browse through the cards first, definitely agreeing that one would be nice to go along with the flowers.  
  
Sam comes back out with the arrangement, quietly putting them on the counter. He bumps into Bucky gently to get his attention, snorting a quiet noise at the wide-eyed look he’s getting. Not that he could really blame Buck one bit for it.  
  
A glance is being made to make sure Steve had his back to them before Buck is mouthing another, ‘What the fuck!’ to Sam. This was insane. That was Captain America. In the shop. Talking to him. And all he could seem to do was internally panic and hope he didn’t say anything fucking dumb.  
  
He’s shaking head back at him and poking Buck in the chest before mouthing back, ‘That’s all you.’ He meanders off to the side again for now, but still keeping to a spot that the two could be in his line of sight⎼ especially with how the Avenger had been looking at Bucky so far.  
  
A silent, and very long, exhale comes from Bucky as he tried to gather himself before Captain Rogers found his way back over. There’s at least a small laugh at seeing both things he had suggested being put on the counter. He’s about to speak again before blue eyes lift to his, seeming to make what he was about to say fly out the window and cause cheeks to prickle with warmth. The eye contact is being broken with an embarrassed laugh at catching himself staring a second time, trying to find words again. “Hah⎼ sorry, sir. I, uh⎼ Mh.” He clamps mouth shut to not make a complete fool of himself and moving to ring up the two items.  
  
Steve keeps eyes on the man even as he looks away, hoping he wasn’t being rude⎼ or creepy⎼ by staring but finding himself unable to take eyes off of him for very long. He tries to offer a small laugh to him to ease the embarrassment but suspecting that might just make it worse. He didn’t even know what he could say, if anything, to diminish the red on the poor guy's cheeks. On the bright side, the flustered look was really cute on him.  
  
There’s a small bite of his lip as he bags the card and plush bear before sliding the bag over to the man. “I need you to sign for the flowers, but⎼ the other two things are on me.” Bucky says with a more genuine smile than before, even if his face was warming up more with a darker blush.  
  
A look is being flicked between the two from Sam, but not saying a word. It was wild enough that Captain America had come in there without the fact that he looked like he was really taking an interest in Bucky. Plus, it was pretty funny watching his poor friend so flustered.  
  
A bit of a surprised look comes over Steve’s face as he reaches for the bag. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Buck replies with a soft laugh before adding, “Don’t get too used to it.” Eyes are moving back down to search for the flower’s receipt and slide it for him to sign. His attention is trailing back up to blues as he moved a hand up to brush a strand of hair away that had decided to drape across face.  
  
Steve flicks eyes between the paper and the cashier before he moves to pick up the pen on the counter to sign it. “That’s really sweet of you. Thank you." He's saying, sliding the paper and pen back over to him. It was sweet of the guy and nice that both of the men here were acting more mellow than most⎼ even if the one in front of him was blushing pretty hard by that point.

A nod answers that with a smile, "You really don't have to thank me. You guys do a lot for people."

"Some people might disagree with that." Steve comments with a soft chuckle.

"Let them disagree then. Doesn't change my thanks." He replies, moving to shove the receipt in a drawer. A hand is pushing the vase to him as he smiles, "Have a nice day, Captain."

Steve nods back to that and returns the smile as he carefully picks up the vase. Another look is being stolen at the man, "You too." He says as he turns to start for the door. He couldn’t help the feeling that he didn’t want to part quite yet, but he couldn’t find anything else that would have prolonged the interaction.

The want is getting him thinking though, really having an interest in seeing the man again. He gets about halfway to the exit before stopping and turning. "Hey, uh, I'd feel bad letting you pay for me like that. Would you, and don't feel like you have to, want to get coffee sometime?"

The question is taking a good moment to process before Buck's face is going a dark red. "Um, hah, uh, yeah. I'd love to." He agrees, trying his best not to stumble over the few words that he could scrounge up, nervously pushing hair out of his face. "I get off at four during the week if that's not too late for you."

"Not at all. Is tomorrow okay?" Steve asks and smiles as he gets a flustered nod back. He was adorable. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

Bucky nods again, giving an, "Mhmm," when he can't really find his words to answer. He's giving a very flustered smile and watching as Captain America moved out the door. There's a good pause before turning to Sam and making a noise. "What the _hell_ just happened."

Sam's making sure the man is gone before laughing and moving over to put a hand on Buck's shoulder and squeeze. "Dude, what happened is Captain America just made heart eyes at you for five minutes then asked you out for coffee."

"And why the fuck did I say yes?" He squeaks out and covers face with an extremely embarrassed noise. There was no way that had just happened.

"Because, my friend, your sweet, little, gay heart couldn't handle big, pretty man speaking to you." Sam tells him with a wide grin on his face.

Buck lightly shoves a hand at him for that one, “I mean I know that. But why Captain America? Oh my god!” And shaking head as he ran hands down his face with just being overall flustered and feeling like an idiot. “I’m gonna make such a damn fool of myself, Sam. I couldn’t even barely speak to him normally!”  
  
Sam’s patting on his back, but still laughing at the poor, embarrassed guy. “Barnes, you’ll be fine. I promise. Just⎼ put like fifty reminders in your phone about this.” He says, still keeping that wide and very amused grin on lips. He couldn't help it after that.  
  
“I’m gonna have to. Fuck.” He huffs out as he shakes head again in an overwhelming amount of disbelief at what the hell had just transpired. “Fuck, Sam, I have a date with Captain America tomorrow.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Buck’s moving to take a seat on a bench nearby, deciding to wait there for now. He just needed to convince himself to calm down and just wait‒ and if he didn’t show up in thirty minutes then he would just go home. It, at least, felt really nice outside and he was sure enjoying it after being cooped up in the back room of the store all day. If it weren’t for the noisy street, he may have fully enjoyed the time waiting.
> 
> The longer the time passed by, the more Buck is actually believing that he wasn’t going to show. And the more he felt his stomach twist with nerves and a sense of disappointment that he didn’t yet want to acknowledge. The thirty-minute limit he gave himself drew near and then past, only letting himself hang around a little longer before deciding it was time to just head home. Bucky slides his phone into a pocket again, pushing himself to stand and turn the direction of his apartment.

“Shit!” Bucky yelps, feeling all the colored water that he just managed to spill running straight down the front of his shirt. He’s setting the vase he had  _ attempted _ to move to the side to try to hurry to get a rag. This was great. Really smart move on his part. Hurried steps are made to get to the rag and keep as much of the water from dripping down his pants as he could. 

Sam comes back as soon as he hears the yelp, eyebrows raised in questioning as he tries to figure out what Buck had managed to do to himself. A laugh rumbles in his throat as he shakes his head at the sight of the brunette with tinted water dripping across the floor and a rag wiping at his exposed stomach. “Out of all the days.” He starts with a smirk.   
  
Buck looks to the man and reddens slightly in embarrassment. “Yeah, I know, I know.” He mutters, scrubbing at the copious amount of water that had soaked into his clothing. Damn. A glance is taken at the clock, at least relieved to see that he still had a couple of hours to let this dry out. What he wasn’t sure would come out was the dye from the carnations' water.    
  
“Your shirt looks greener than I remember.” Sam teases, sticking near the doorway still in case anyone else came in the shop. “Did you remember to bring that change of clothes?”   
  
Buck’s sticking lower lip out a little at the question and shaking head, “No, I’m dumb and left them right beside the door.” He answers, moving to just pull the shirt off to try to rinse as much of the green dye off his shirt as he could. The confidence that he could get it out was very low with how heavily colored that water had been. He’s dunking the shirt in the sink to run it under water, frowning at seeing not much of it coming out. Great.    
  
Sam shakes his head at the poor guy, giving a look back out into the shop before moving over to see how badly it had stained. At seeing the green tint not coming out well, he’s just patting Buck on the shoulder. “How did you even do that?” He asks with a soft huff of a laugh.    
  
“I was trying to take that green carnation vase down to change out the water and it slipped in my hand. I managed not to drop the whole damn thing, but‒ yeah. Half the water spilled.” He grumbles with an exasperated sigh.    
  
Sam’s about to speak again before the sound of someone coming in stops him, “I’ll be right back. Just try to get some warm water on that.” He tells him with another huffed laugh. The poor guy.    
  
“Working on it.” Bucky sighs, rinsing it until he was pretty sure that no more would come out of it. He’s ringing out the water and deciding to drape it over the back of a chair for the time being. A frown crosses lips at looking at the green still stained down the front of his shirt but wasn’t like there was much else he could do about it right now. 

He was hoping that by the time they started closing up that it would at least have dried back out. And when that time finally came to check it again, he was pretty happy to know that it was just slightly damp instead of drenched. Still, not exactly pleased with the fact that there was a large stain all down the front. The only upside he could come to was at least it was a green and not yellow blob of color. 

Buck’s sliding the shirt on as Sam comes back, already making a face at him in the anticipation of a laugh, which, was a correct assumption since it was soon to follow. “I know. I  _ know _ .” He’s saying before the guy could even open his mouth. 

“If you weren’t a size bigger than me, I’d just trade shirts with you out of pity, man,” Sam tells him, even if he  _ is _ grinning again by that point. 

“Pity? And not the kindness of your heart?” Buck teases, moving hand back through his hair to try to make sure nowhere was sticking up. 

Sam gives a smirk to that as he leans against the doorframe to wait for him. He couldn’t help but be amused at seeing the green waterfalled down the front of his friend’s shirt. It would be funny enough in a normal circumstance, but the fact that Buck had a date after his shift ended really did it in on his bad luck. “I thought that would have been a given.” 

The metal hand snags wallet to stuff into a pocket before gathering phone and keys too. “Fine, I’ll give you that one just this once.” He snorts, making sure he had everything before beginning his round of making sure everything was closed up tight. Once he’s satisfied that everything was shut correctly and put away, he’s moving to move towards Sam and following him out into the main part of the shop. 

A hand is moving to clasp Bucky on the shoulder as he joined him back out in the shop, giving a squeeze before letting go. “You nervous?” He’s asking with a glance over to the other man.    
  
“Extremely,” Buck answers, taking a glance at the clock. Stomach is twisting a little more at having ten minutes until closing. There was the fair sized worry in the back of his mind that Steve wouldn’t show up. Even if he did, he was sure there was a good chance that the guy would be scared off by finding out how much of a major dumbass he was. That point having been proven by having spilled heavily dyed water on himself.    
  
Sam offers a smile to him, though eyes not lingering on him too long as he started to get everything ready to lock up the place at closing. “I’m sure you’ll be fine. Just try to relax.”    
  
“Sam. It’s Captain America. And I haven’t exactly been on a date since college‒ that I can think of at least.” Buck replies, not exactly confident in himself. He’s moving around the counter to start straightening up, hoping that they wouldn’t have any last minute customers.

A laugh is given to the words, glancing back over to Bucky for a moment before attention pulls back to what he was doing. “You should give yourself more credit, you’re a sweet guy. Most of the time,” and giving a teasing smirk to that. 

“Thanks, Sam.” Buck snorts with a roll of eyes, checking the time again. He did appreciate the reassurance, even if it was being said through banter. It was at least doing good to get his mind off of any sort of stress, which, he could definitely appreciate. 

The stress spikes all over again as the time finally comes to four. He was both excited and extremely nervous for this, and sure as hell hoped that he wouldn’t act like the idiot he really was. Hands pat his pockets to make sure he had everything as he trailed Sam to the door. “I don’t know if I’m more nervous about if he does or doesn’t show up.” 

“You know if it was anyone else I would get onto you about the nerves part.” Sam teases, holding the door for him and nodding to the thanks given. “And you better text me later to let me know how it goes.” 

“I will.” He promises with a smile, sliding hands in his pockets. “I’ll talk to you later then.” 

“Yeah. Have fun.” Sam smiles, giving him a pat on the shoulder before moving to part ways. He did hope that he would have a good time.

Buck’s moving to take a seat on a bench nearby, deciding to wait there for now. He just needed to convince himself to calm down and just wait‒ and if he didn’t show up in thirty minutes then he would just go home. It, at least, felt really nice outside and he was sure enjoying it after being cooped up in the back room of the store all day. If it weren’t for the noisy street, he may have fully enjoyed the time waiting. 

The longer the time passed by, the more Buck is actually believing that he wasn’t going to show. And the more he felt his stomach twist with nerves and a sense of disappointment that he didn’t yet want to acknowledge. The thirty-minute limit he gave himself drew near and then past, only letting himself hang around a little longer before deciding it was time to just head home. Bucky slides his phone into a pocket again, pushing himself to stand and turn the direction of his apartment. 

Maybe it was dumb to have gotten his hopes up like that. The guy was an Avenger, after all, there  _ had _ to be more important things that he needed to do. Though, even convincing himself of that didn’t do much to ease the disappointing feeling of having a no-show, no matter who it would have been. 

It’s only as he gets across the crosswalk at the end of the block when a voice calls out a, “Hey! Wait!” If there wasn’t the fear that he might have left something on the bench, he likely wouldn’t have turned, but he does this time to see what that was about. There’s some sort of mixture of ease and tense up at seeing the man he had been waiting for approaching. 

Steve’s getting to him, a little surprised that he had even waited that long for him. “I’m not going to make any excuses to you, but I'm so sorry to be late.” He speaks as soon as he gets to a better speaking distance. 

“Over thirty minutes is a pretty shitty amount of time.” Bucky’s saying, but keeping voice on the softer side even with that. It wasn't like he was necessarily mad at him, but did want to make it clear that Captain America or not, it was pretty rude. 

"I know, I feel bad. And even worse that I forgot to ask your name yesterday."  He says back to that, offering an apologetic smile to him. This really wasn't how he wanted that second impression to go towards the guy. He moves a hand to rub at the back of his neck, “I would get you flowers to make up for it, but might be betrayal buying from somewhere else.”

Buck blinks a couple of times at that before a giggle bubbles out, shaking head. “Wow,” Is all that comes as a response, but the dumb comment was doing good to ease up the stress that had been plaguing him before. “My name’s James. But call me Bucky.”

The response is enough to have Steve feeling like he hadn’t completely fucked up with having been close to forty minutes late. He smiles at the name given, nodding in acknowledgment to it. The nickname was cute. He wasn’t sure where it came from with the name James, but it did seem to fit him better. “Well, Bucky, I hope you still are okay to get that coffee?”

A quick moment of consideration passes his mind before giving a nod, “Yep. Might need that caffeine to get me through the rest of the day.” He agrees with a smile thinning lips. “You have a place in mind?”

Steve smiles at the agreement to still go, honestly a little surprised that he still wanted to‒ but also he figured it might have something to do with him being an Avenger. “I’ll be honest, I don’t really know the area. I saw some places back the other way, but if you have any you’d rather go to I’m fine with that.” He answers. 

Buck sucks in corner of his lip to think about it for a moment, considering the places that he knew and which ones wouldn’t be too far out of the way. “There’s one about four blocks down that way,” and pointing, “that’s beside a park if you’d want to go sit outside. It’s nice out today. And might be quieter.” 

A nod comes as a response to the option, liking the idea of not being in a noisy place if they didn’t have to be. “Sounds great.” He tells him before motioning for him to go first. “Lead the way then.” 

Steve’s eyes are lingering on Bucky’s before he turns to cross the road the other direction. He follows along in pace with him, only trailing a step to let him take the lead on where they were going. He’s trying not to stare at him since he needed to watch where he was walking and‒ he didn’t want to make it weird for the guy.

Buck continues along, glad that there weren’t too many people going this way at the moment. “Hey, I outta warn you beforehand, I have some memory issues. So if I say or ask things twice, it’s normal, and just let me know that I’ve said it already.” He speaks with a bit of a sheepish look over to the larger man. 

The words are surprising, but getting a nod anyways. “Okay.” He agrees, but can’t help the curiosity. “I hope it’s not rude of me to ask about that?” 

“No, I’d be curious too.” Buck comments with a soft laugh before explaining, “I had a pretty bad head injury happen in the New York attack. It’s how I lost my arm too.” He says, wiggling fingers with the thought. “I can’t remember what happened exactly, or probably half a year after it, but it’s gotten a lot better. I just forget more mundane things I guess.”

The answer gets a small frown from the fact of  _ that _ being what caused the injuries. “I’m sorry, but that’s good to know you’ve improved.” He offers back. 

Buck gives a soft laugh and nod, “Yeah. Sorry to get heavy on that so soon.” He apologizes with a glance over to Steve.

“No, I asked, it’s alright.” He quickly responds. 

A hum comes back to that, looking back ahead to stop at a crosswalk and wait for it to change. “Has your day been alright?” He asks with another look over to him, offering a smile as he catches his gaze.

The question gets a soft sigh, “For the most part. Busier than I would have liked.” He answers, keeping blues on those beautiful eyes. “Typically fine with busy, but today I would have rather been on time like I promised. I’m glad I managed to catch you, I was looking forward to seeing you again.” 

The response is quick to get cheeks to darken in color, a flustered giggle bubbling out of him as Buck looked elsewhere for a quick moment. “You’re being awfully sweet to make up for that, huh?”

“Might be, but just telling you the truth,” Steve replies, smile widening slightly at the blush on the other man’s cheeks. He’s letting him take the lead again as the crosswalk signal changes. “And you? How was your day?”

Was he flirting with him? Is that what was happening right now? Buck’s looking ahead, for now, to see where he was going, and hoping his hair could conceal the red on his face until it calmed back down. The question back gets head to turn slightly to answer, “Besides spilling dyed water on myself, pretty decent. Though now there seems to be a sweet guy wanting to make my face the same color as that stop sign. Not sure how I feel about that though.” 

Steve’s laughing at the response, “If it helps I thought your shirt was supposed to be like that.” He says before adding, “Would the sweet guy be able to sway your answer if he pays for your coffee too?” 

“He just might, even if he doesn’t have to do that.” 

“Well, that’s just too bad now, isn’t it?”

Bucky’s giggling at that, still very red and flustered as he looks over to him for a quick moment. “Thank you, that’s very nice of you.”

He was admittingly surprised how nice the guy was being. And admittingly extremely surprised that he was even into men, but he wouldn’t voice either of those things out loud to Steve. There also wasn’t the faintest idea why an Avenger was taking an interest in him, especially such a pretty one‒ not that all of them weren’t‒ yep his internal thoughts must be overheating along with his face.

“I’m sorry, but where are we going again?” He asks with an embarrassed look over, coupled with an equally flustered laugh. “I think I got to thinking about other stuff.” 

Steve offers a smile back to the embarrassment, “You said coffee shop by a park, but didn’t say a name specifically.”

Buck nods to that and gives a quick look at their surroundings, relieved that they were going the right way and he wasn’t just getting them lost in the middle of the city. “Right. Sorry. It should be that place way down there with the purple awning.” He says, nodding towards it, hoping the color would help the place stick in his mind better.

The two press a little closer to each other as people pass, Steve, being glad that none are paying him any attention. He keeps quiet as they walk the rest of the way, not wanting to pull Bucky’s thought process away from him at the moment. He didn’t think too much of the guy having a prosthetic and head injury other than feeling a little guilt of how it had happened to him. 

Buck’s using his couple step lead to get ahead to get the door for Steve as they make it to the coffee place. It was a little more crowded in there than he would like, moving quickly to catch up with Steve as they got in line. “Hey, would you wanna go sit in the park once we get it? Might be quieter.” He asks, unaware of having asked it already.

Steve contemplates for a quick moment whether to remind him he said it before deciding just to answer. “Yeah, that’d be good. It’s a nice day out.” He replies with a smile and nod to him. 

He keeps close as they cycle through the line, glancing over to him every little bit and smiling each time he manages to catch a look back. The noise of the place kept from any decent conversation as they got to the front and both ordered. He was definitely glad once they got back out of the shop, gripping cup carefully as they go back outside. 

Buck leads him across the road and into the park before falling to walk more casually back beside the man. “I know a good spot to sit if it’s open.” He offers up with a glance over and smiles, crinkling eyes slightly at the nod of agreement to that. He hopes by the time they got there that his coffee would be cool enough to sip on. He was glad that it was such a nice afternoon, taking in the warm air. It was, by far, a lot nicer than being cooped up at work or home. Even if his habit of being slightly anti-social helped with the latter of the two. 

As they get to the spot, Buck’s glad to see that the place was empty, pointing it out to Steve. “I guess not surprising I picked the spot with flowers.” He comments with a quiet laugh and smile over to him. 

Steve looks to the spot, a softly amused look crossing features at the bench being on the one side of a flowery area. “Have an eye for pretty things, huh?” He teases.

“I guess so. I did agree to come here with you, after all.” He shoots back with a wink, even if he couldn’t really believe he mustered that one up. There was a pretty good chance he had just made himself blush too. 

A surprised look comes back over at him before a laugh follows at the red on Bucky’s cheeks. “I don’t think you’re supposed to embarrass yourself flirting.”

“I think I should correct you to me  _ trying _ to flirt.” Bucky giggles as he motioned for Steve to take a seat first. He follows after, making sure to give a good amount of room between them. He lifts the coffee up to get that first sip, glad it had had time to cool off enough on the walk there. 

Steve grins at that as he gets settled, amused by the guy more than anything. “I’d say it was successful.” He murmurs back as he shifts to where he could better see him. He takes a sip of his own drink, taking a slow breath after and enjoying the moment. “You do this often?”

“What? Come out here or?” Buck asks with a twitch upwards of an eyebrow. 

“Yeah.”

Buck shifts the coffee between hands, giving a smile, but shaking his head. “Nah, not as much as I’d like to. Most of the time I’m just ready to get home.” He answers. “But it’s nice. Usually pretty quiet here.” 

“Can’t disagree with you there.” Steve murmurs, glancing around at the bundles of color surrounding them. “The flower shop a full-time job?” He asks before raising his cup to take a slow sip.

“Yeah. Usually, all week unless one of us gives up a shift to one of the college kids that do weekends.” Bucky answers, keeping eyes mostly on the other man. “I like it though. Small business. Good pay. Co-worker’s a good friend, even if he  _ does _ think his job is to sass me.”

Steve’s keeping his own attention back on Bucky, smiling at the response, the last part getting a laugh. “Sounds like you found a good place.” He replies.

The comment gets a hum to interrupt the sip he was taking and swallowing a good few gulps after. He lowers the cup into his lap, metal fingers tapping against the side of it. “What about you, Mr. Avenger?” He starts with a smirk, “You spend all your time fighting or have you found something else to do too?” 

Maybe there’s a hint of surprise at where the question goes, but there’s an amused look back to him. “I spend a lot of time on missions and things related to the team.” He answers before giving in to add, “But not like I don’t have free time.” 

Buck listens, quietly sipping on coffee as he keeps attention towards the larger man. It was odd, he really felt like he could relax talking to this guy even if he was Captain America and‒ really damn attractive. “Mh, so is the answer classified or?” He teases. 

“It might be,” Steve smirks with a wink, “I’ll answer if you’ll agree to one thing.”

“Oh yeah? Shoot.” 

“That we can do this again sometime?” He asks, offering a softer smile with the question.

Bucky blinks a couple of times in surprise as his cheeks heat up all over again. A smile crosses lips back before the corner of it pulls back into more of a sly look. “As long as you aren’t late again.” He teases, “But yeah, I’d love to.” 

The first comment comes with a huff of a laugh, fully deserving that one, but glad to hear the agreement. “I’ll try my best not to. But I don’t think I can make promises.” 

That’s getting a snort back to him before biting lip a moment and tapping against cup again, “I could give you my number?” He offers, feeling the embarrassment in himself rise more from it, but it  _ would _ make sense for them with the unknown schedules. 

Steve catches himself looking down at lips at the bite to them, almost missing what he was saying as eyes flick back up. There’s a second of hesitation before nodding, “Yeah, might help.” He smiles and moves to dig in his pocket for his phone, careful not to turn his coffee a weird way.

The hesitation was expected, but the answer might be a surprise. “Alright. And don’t worry, I’m not the kind of person that would give yours to anyone else.” He reassures, moving to get out his own phone so he could look to see what the hell his number even was. 

Steve unlocks his phone and gets to where Bucky could add the contact in before handing it over. “You didn’t give the impression that you were.” He smiles with a slight nod. “And the answer to your question before is I like art. I don’t have much time to do it anymore but I still like it when I do. Also, like to read, but, again, not much time to do that.” 

Buck balances his cup between thighs to take Steve’s phone and type in his number and name before handing it back over. He goes ahead and offers his own phone over for him to do the same as he listens to the answer, unable to help a smile crossing lips from it. “Wouldn’t have guessed that one.” He murmurs softly, “What kind of art do you do?”

A hand takes his phone back to put in his pocket again, then goes to carefully take Bucky’s to put his number into. “Mostly just sketches, drawings. I used to paint when I was younger, but I  _ definitely _ don’t have time to do that anymore.” 

“Aw, that’s a shame, I’d like to of seen one.” Bucky smiles, taking his phone back to slide into a pocket. “But that’s really cool!” 

“Well, if I ever do again, I’ll let you know,” Steve promises as he lifts the cup again to finish off his coffee. 

Buck’s still working on his drink, enjoying the warmth of the coffee and the air around them. “I’ll look forward to it if you ever do then.” He comments after lowering cup back down. 

“What about you?”

“Hm?”

“What do you like to do?”

“Oh,” Buck’s giving a soft laugh, not wanting to admit he had already strayed off from the conversation. He hums in thought before giving his answer, “Read a lot. Watch  _ way _ too many movies and shows. I guess what any person in their early thirties does. Well‒ any normal person.” He pokes with a wink at him. 

A teased eye roll gets a response, but smiling still. “You into a certain genre?” 

“I love me some sci-fi. Which, I guess is kinda funny with there being‒ aliens and‒ superheroes and all actually out there.” He shrugs and shifts in his spot a little to get more comfortable.

“Yeah?” Steve comments before giving a soft laugh to preface his next words, “You know, I still haven’t gotten around to seeing any of the Star Wars movies.” Or Star Trek, but he still wasn’t clear on whether that was just movies or if there was a show too. 

“Really? Those are good.” Buck responds, “I think I have all of those movies if you ever wanna borrow them. Or, if you’re okay with cats, you could come by a day to watch one.” He offers, hoping that wasn’t pushing keeping in contact. 

“Sure, honestly I’m fine with either.” He agrees, honestly glad that Bucky was even taking an interest in continuing to talk to him. Plus he really liked that he didn’t seem too caught up on the Avenger part of him. He offers a bit of an amused look, “How many cats do you have?” 

The question gets a soft huff of a laugh, “Two. For now.” 

“Looking to get another one then?”

“I dunno, maybe. They’re both rescues, and it’s almost that season where there’s a bunch of stray kittens, so, yeah, maybe I’ll get another this year.” Bucky answers. He lifts his cup to finish off the rest of his coffee before using the cup to absentmindedly tap on. 

Steve gives a smile to the answer, thinking it was pretty sweet of the guy. He did seem like a nice person as far as he could tell. “I’d have no idea what to expect with a cat, but not like I have anything against them.” 

“Guessing you don’t have time for any pets either, huh?”

There’s a shake of his head in response to that. “Nope. I’d be worried that I wouldn’t have enough time to take care of something.” 

“That’s understandable.” Bucky comments, stretching a little in his place. He’s pulling back phone out to check the time and rolling shoulders a little. “Speaking of my cats, I should probably head home before they start destroying something because I’m a lot later than normal.” A soft laugh following his statement. 

The comment gets a nod and soft sigh, “Yeah, I probably need to head back too.” Steve concurs as he moves to slowly get to feet, offering a hand out to Bucky.

Buck takes the hand to stand, giving him a soft smile. “This was nice. Thank you for coffee.” 

“I’d love to do it again if we can work something out.” Steve counters to that. He did hope that they could, he really did enjoy Bucky’s company so far. It was a nice break up of the norm coming out to have coffee with someone. 

“Yeah, I’m sure we can figure something out.” 

Steve motions for him to go ahead and go first, following beside of him as he walked. “I look forward to it then. It was really nice to meet you. Even if you did decide to dye your shirt last minute.” He teases lightly. 

Buck’s scrunching nose in amusement and lightly bumping hand into him for that. “Uh huh.” He huffs with a snicker, “It was nice meeting you too, Steve. Even if you did decide to be late.” He pokes back. 

An amused look is given to him to that, “Maybe we’ll both be better next time, huh?”

“We should sure hope so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't expect it to take me this long to write a second chapter. I may have gotten distracted many many times in the process. Either way, I hope you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I'm going to attempt to make chapters around this length or longer in the future. And hopefully, figure out what I'm doing by that point, but really no promises on that one. This is my first fic on here and I hope to crank out a whole lot more with these cute dorks. Anyways, thank you for reading! 
> 
> Also, I'm going to have a tumblr for this account at who-the-buck-is-fucky (I'm not sure if I can link things??)


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